Azerbaijan’s initiative for a ceasefire, launched on September 21 during its chairmanship at the 29th UN Climate Change Conference (COP29), has received backing from all member states of the Non-Aligned Movement, according to the Foreign Ministry, Azernews reports.
Day: October 11, 2024
Categories
The Daily Beat: 10 October
On October 10, the foreign ministers of the Weimar Triangle (France, Germany, Poland) issued a joint statement reaffirming their support for the Georgian people’s European aspirations and deploring the actions of the ruling Georgian Dream government that led to the de facto suspension of Georgia’s EU accession process. Ministers also reminded the Georgian authorities that “the scope and depth of EU-Georgia relations and cooperation are at stake.”
Following the debates on Georgia, the German Bundestag adopted a resolution entitled “A European Future for Georgia,” highlighting the country’s democratic backsliding and the anti-democratic actions of the current GD government. The resolution calls on the German Federal Government to respond with concrete action. The coalition factions – SPD, Alliance 90/The Greens, and FDP – voted in favor, and the Union faction, the AfD faction, and the BSW group voted against. The Left group abstained.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a presidential decree on October 10 expanding grounds for the visa-free regime for Georgian citizens. Labor migrants from Georgia can now stay in Russia for more than three months, whereas previously all other categories of Georgians entering the country had this right. On the other hand, Russians can stay in Georgia for 365 consecutive days. The changes were made in the decree published in the spring of 2023 when Russia canceled visas for Georgians.
Pro-government Imedi TV refuses to air opposition campaign ads until the opposition-leaning channels air those of the ruling Georgian Dream party. Since the Communications Commission upheld the GD’s complaints against the opposition media for refusing to air GD ads and declared them to be in breach of the law and thus subject to the fines imposed by the court, it should do the same with Imedi. But it remains to be seen how ComCom will deal with the pro-government Imedi TV should the opposition parties file a complaint against it.
Most of the staff at the leading advertising agency Metro Production quit in protest after its director said he produced a video for the ruling Georgian Dream electoral campaign. According to him, the GD campaign ad was filmed with the freelance participation of the company’s several employees, but they said that they did not know that the video was intended for the ruling party’s election campaign. Instead, they were told it was being filmed to promote tourism in the coastal city of Batumi, according to reports that surfaced in the media.
The de facto foreign minister of occupied Abkhazia, Sergei Shamba, stated in a meeting with the co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions that Abkhazia would welcome Georgia’s apology as a first step toward reconciliation. Shamba also stressed the need for Georgia to refrain from formulations that are not conducive to the settlement of relations, such as referring to Abkhazia and Tskhinvali as “occupied territories.”
On October 10, the occupied Tskhinvali region’s so-called security council said that it would restrict movement across the occupation line in October, during the parliamentary election in Georgia. “To ensure the safety of the population of [occupied] South Ossetia, to exclude possible provocations from the pro-Western and nationalist radical forces of Georgia, a decision was made to suspend the work of the simplified border crossing points…,” the press service of the de-facto authorities reported.
